Hospital purchases former MBNA site

Rockland — Northeast Health announced Monday that it has reached an agreement with Bank of America to purchase a six-acre site, and 17,212-square-foot building, on Old County Road in Rockland.

The building, built in 1998 for cable company Frontiervision, is a long-vacant former MBNA call center, the credit card company's first home in Rockland. It has been disused since the company opened its 10-acre waterfront complex in the city in 2001.

The property has been on the real estate market since late 2003.

Chris Burke, spokesman for Northeast Health, said the healthcare provider would use the building to consolidate its information technology (IT) department. The department's current home in the basement of the Physician's Building at Penobscot Bay Medical Center is becoming cramped and requires expansion, said Burke.

Northeast Health needs the space to keep up with technology, said Burke, which is the "back office of healthcare."

No closing date has been set, but Burke said Northeast Health would pay an estimated $95-per-square-foot for the building, a sale price of approximately $1.6 million. Some capital investment in the building should follow, he added.

The city of Rockland has the building and land assessed for $2.3 million. Burke said Northeast Health, a nonprofit, has not yet decided on whether to pay property taxes to the city following the purchase.